By Ajibade Adegbayibi, Ilorin

The Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mr Oluwatosin Ajayi, has called for the compulsory recruitment of first-class graduates into the intelligence agency as part of efforts to bolster national security.

Ajayi made this proposition during the 2025 Distinguished Personality Lecture at the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, Kwara State.

Delivering a lecture titled “The Roles of the DSS in Security, Peacekeeping, and National Integration,” the DSS chief underscored the need for a fundamental overhaul in the recruitment and staffing strategies of security agencies, insisting that only the most academically qualified individuals should be enlisted.

Represented by Mr Patrick Ikenweiwe, the Deputy Director of the DSS, Mr Ajayi argued that making the recruitment of high-achieving graduates a national policy was crucial. He likened this approach to Israel’s selective university admission system.

He said, “Like I know, in Israel, there is one examination that students take to get admitted into the university. The moment you score above 70 marks, you have no option but to be sent to the university there.

“Tell me how would a ‘Dundee’ (dullard) be able to keep security in a criminal gang that is constituted of First Class people? You know, it takes intellect to track criminality.

“So, if I have my way in this country, and we keep praying that we do the right thing, the academia should be able to supply us, sincerely, the details of students who have excelled in their various fields of study so that they would be forced to serve this great nation.”

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